Civil Rights Timeline: Jan. 15, 1929 – Dec. 21, 19

November 28, 2018 - 0 Comments

56Jan. 15, 1929 – Dr. King is born – Born on Jan. 15, 1929, inAtlanta, Ga., he was thesecond of three children of the Rev. Michael (later Martin) andAlbertaWilliams King.

Sept. 1, 1954 – Dr. King becomes pastor – In 1954, King accepted hisfirst pastorate–theDexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. He and his wife,Coretta Scott King, whom he had met and married (June 1953) while atBoston University.

4,1913, sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott that led to a 1956Supreme Court order outlawing discriminatory practices on Montgomerybuses. In December 1955, returning home from her assistant tailor jobinMontgomery, Parks refused a bus driver’s order to surrender her seatto awhite man. She was jailed and fined $14.

Dec. 5, 1955 – Montgomery bus boycott- Although precipitated by thearrest of RosaParks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 was actually acollectiveresponse to decades of intimidation, harassment and discriminationofAlabama’s African American population. By 1955, judicial decisionswerestill the principal means of struggle for civil rights, even thoughpicketing,marches and boycotts sometimes punctuated the litigation. The boycott,which lasted for more than a year, was almost 100 percent effective.

Dec. 21, 1956 – Bus segregation declared illegal – The boycott’ssucceeded indesegregating public facilities in the South and also in obtainingcivil rightslegislation from Congress.

Eisenhower quickly intervened, in part by sending federal troops toLittleRock, and several black students were enrolled at Central High School.

Aug. 19, 1958 – Student sit-ins – In spite of the events in LittleRock or Montgomery, orSupreme Court decisions, segregation still pervaded American societyby1960. While protests and boycotts achieved moderate successes indesegregating aspects of education and transportation, otherfacilities suchas restaurants, theaters, libraries, amusement parks and churcheseitherbarred or limited access to African Americans, or maintained separate,invariably inferior, facilities for black patrons. Nowhere was thecontradiction of accepting money with one hand while withholdingservicewith the other so glaring as the lunch counters of five-and-ten centstoresand department stores.

This situation coincided with a growing dissatisfaction among theyoungblack population. Although many of them enjoyed political, educationandeconomic rights undreamed of by their elders, the remaining barriersseemed as high as ever. Often violence, threats and politicalmachinations,such as token integration maintained the status quo. This exhibitfeatures arestored dime store lunch counter, populated with student protesters,andincludes audio visual segments of the events.

May 3, 1961 – “Freedom Riders” – The Congress of Racial Equalityorganizes the“Freedom Riders.”Sept. 30, 1962 – University Riot – During the 1960s, Mississippi wasa center of the CivilRights movement. Despite the 1954 Supreme Court decision makingsegregated schools illegal, the state did not quickly instituteracialintegration. In 1962 a black student, James Meredith, attempted toattendthe University of Mississippi law school. His admission was blocked,andduring the subsequent violence, federal troops were sent to restoreorder toa 15 hour riot. Violent incidents against blacks took place as thestrugglefor integration continued.

23, 1964, bans the use of poll taxes in federal elections (a deviceimposedby some states to circumvent the 15th Amendment’s guarantee of equalvoting rights). Intended to alleviate the burdens of black and poorcitizens,it states that in any presidential or congressional election, nocitizen can bedenied, by the state or federal government, the right to vote becauseoffailure to pay either a poll tax or any other tax.

Jul. 2, 1964 – Civil Rights Act – Congress enacted new legislation inan attempt toovercome local and state obstruction to the exercise of citizenshiprights byblacks. These efforts culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964,whichprohibited discrimination in employment and established the EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission. This major piece of legislationalsobanned discrimination in public accommodations connected withinterstatecommerce, including restaurants, hotels, and theaters.

Dec. 10, 1964 – Nobel Peace Prize – In January 1964, Time magazinechose King Manof the Year, the first black American so honored. Later that yearhebecame the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mar. 7, 1965 – Montgomery March – After supporting desegregationefforts in SaintAugustine, Fla., in 1964, King concentrated his efforts on the voter-registration drive in Selma, Ala., leading a harrowing march fromSelma toMontgomery in March 1965. Soon after, a tour of the northern citiesledhim to assail the conditions of economic as well as socialdiscrimination.

This marked a shift in SCLC strategy, one intended to “bring theNegro intothe mainstream of American life as quickly as possible.”Civil Rights TimelineAug. 6, 1965 – Jun. 12, 1966Aug. 6, 1965 – Voting Rights Act – The Voting Rights Act authorizedthe U.S. attorneygeneral to send federal examiners to register black voters undercertaincircumstances. It also suspended all literacy tests in states inwhich less than50% of the voting-age population had been registered or had voted inthe1964 election. The law had an immediate impact. By the end of 1965aquarter of a million new black voters had been registered, one thirdbyfederal examiners. The Voting Rights Act was readopted andstrengthenedin 1970, 1975, and 1982.

Aug. 11, 1965 – Rioting in Watts – As desegregation progressed in theSouth, attentionbegan to shift northward. Targets in the North, however, were moreelusive. Segregation in the northern cities did not rest on laws somuch ason attitudes, customs, and economic relationships. These were moredifficult to confront with the tactics of nonviolent protest.

Frustration andresentment grew in the black ghettos. In 1965 the Watts area of LosAngeles erupted into a riot that lasted for several days and left 34dead. Forthree successive summers, outbursts of rebellion occurred in citiesacrossthe country.

Civil Rights TimelineJun. 23, 1967- Apr. 9, 1968Jun. 23, 1967 – Detroit Riot – The most massive was the Detroit riotof 1967, whichlasted nearly a week, claimed 40 lives, and destroyed property worth$250million. The passions and upheavals of the 1960s gave way to at leasttheappearance of calm in the 1970s and ’80s. Protests became lessfrequentand widespread as blacks and whites alike took stock of the gains ofone ofthe most tumultuous periods in U.S. history.

Mar. 2 1968, – Separate and Unequal – A report is released that theNation is divided intogroups of Blacks and whites.

Apr. 4, 1968 – Dr. King is assassinated – On Apr. 4, 1968, King wasfelled by anassassin’s bullet. The violent death of this man of peace broughtanimmediate reaction of rioting in black ghettos around the country.

Althoughone man, James Earl Ray, was convicted of King’s murder, the questionofwhether he was the paid agent of conspirators has not beenconclusivelyresolved. It is clear only that the United States was deprived of atoweringsymbol of moral and social progress. King’s birthday was declared afederalholiday in 1983.

Apr. 8, 1968 – City Hall March – Coretta King leads a march of 42,000to city hall tomourn her husbands death.

Apr. 9, 1968 – Dr. King is buried – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. isburied at south ViewCemetery. A crowd of 50,000 to 100,000 is present as they mourn thedeath of a towering symbol of moral and social progress for BlackAmericans.